INTRODUCTION TO PHYSIOLOGY

SMOOTH MUSCLE
• 1. The action potential of skeletal muscle
• A) has a prolonged plateau phase.
• B) spreads inward to all parts of the muscle via the T tubules.
• C) causes the immediate uptake of Ca2+ into the lateral sacs of the
sarcoplasmic reticulum.
• D) is longer than the action potential of cardiac muscle.
• E) is not essential for contraction.
• 2. The cross-bridges of the sarcomere in skeletal muscle are made
up of
• A) actin.
• B) myosin.
• C) troponin.
• D) tropomyosin.
• E) myelin.
Smooth muscle
• Distribution
• Functions
• „ Ultrastructure
• Types & Physiological classification
• Electrophysiology of smooth muscle
a) Electrical activity in single-unit smooth muscle
b) Electrical activity in multiunit smooth muscle
• „ Contractile process
• Excitation contraction coupling
• „ Control of smooth muscle
 INTRODUCTION
• Smooth muscles are non-striated (plain) and involuntary muscles.
• Present in almost all the organs in the form of sheets, bundles or sheaths around other tissues.
• Form the major contractile tissues of various organs.
• Structures in which smooth muscle fibers are present include:
1. Wall of organs like esophagus, stomach and intestine in the gastrointestinal tract
2. Ducts of digestive glands
3. Trachea, bronchial tube and alveolar ducts of respiratory tract
4. Ureter, urinary bladder and urethra in Renal system
5. Wall of the blood vessels in circulatory system
6. Erector pilorum of skin
7. Mammary glands, uterus, genital ducts, prostate gland and scrotum in the reproductive system
8. Iris and ciliary body of the eye.
Functions of smooth muscle
• Smooth muscles are concerned with very important functions in different parts of the body
In cardiovascular system
• Smooth muscle fibers around the blood vessels regulate blood pressure and blood flow through
different organs and regions of the body.
In respiratory system
• Contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle fibers of the air passage alter the diameter of air passage
and regulate the inflow and outflow of air.
„ In digestive system
• Smooth muscle fibers in digestive tract help in movement of food substances, mixing of food substance
with digestive juices, absorption of digested material and elimination of unwanted substances.
• Sphincters (made up of smooth muscles) along the digestive tract regulate the flow of materials.
In renal system
• Smooth muscle fibers in renal blood vessels regulate renal blood flow and glomerular filtration.
• Smooth muscles in the ureters propel urine from kidneys to urinary bladder through ureters.
• Smooth muscles present in urinary bladder help voiding urine to the exterior
In reproductive system
• In males, smooth muscle fibers facilitate the movement of sperms and secretions
from accessory glands along the reproductive tract.
• In females, these muscles accelerate the movement of sperms through genital tract
after sexual act, movement of ovum into uterus through fallopian tube, expulsion of
menstrual fluid and delivery of the baby.
Structure of smooth muscle
• Muscle fibers are fusiform or
elongated cells.
• These fibers are generally very
small, measuring 2 to 5 microns in
diameter and 50 to 200 microns in
length.
• Nucleus is single and elongated
and it is centrally placed.
• Normally, two or more nucleoli are
present in the nucleus

Physical structure of smooth muscle

Characteristics of smooth muscle
1. There is absence of a well-defined myofibrils and sarcomere in smooth muscles.
Hence, the alternate dark and light bands are absent.
Absence of dark and light bands gives the non-striated appearance to the smooth muscle.
2. Contractile proteins in smooth muscle fiber are actin, myosin and tropomyosin.
But troponin is absent.
3. Thick and thin filaments are present in smooth muscle. However, these filaments are not
arranged in orderly fashion as in skeletal muscle. Thick filaments are formed by myosin
molecules and are scattered in sarcoplasm.
4. These thick filaments contain more number of cross bridges than in skeletal muscle.
Thin filaments are made up of actin and tropomyosin molecules.
5. Smooth muscle fibers are covered by connective tissue. But the tendons are absent.
6. Sarcotubular system in smooth muscle fibers is in the form of network.
‘T’ tubules are absent and ‘L’ tubules are poorly developed
Resting membrane potential (RMP)
• RMP in visceral smooth muscle is very unstable and ranges between –50 and –75 mV.
• Sometimes, it reaches the low level of –25 mV.
Cause for unstable resting membrane potential – slow-wave potential
• Unstable RMP is caused by the appearance of some wave-like fluctuations called slow
waves.
• The slow waves occur in a rhythmic fashion at a frequency of 4 to 10 per minute with the
amplitude of 10 to 15 mV.
• The cause of the slow-wave rhythm is not known.
• It is suggested that it may be due to the rhythmic modulations in the activities of sodium
potassium pump.
• The slow wave is not action potential and it cannot cause contraction of the muscle. But it
initiates the action potential
Action potential in smooth muscle
• Three types of action potential occur in visceral
smooth muscle fibers:
1. Spike potential
• Spike potential is due to nervous and other
external stimuli and it leads to contraction of the
muscle.
2. Spike potential initiated by slow-wave rhythm
• Spike potentials initiated by the slow-wave
rhythm cause rhythmic contractions of smooth
muscles.
• This type of potentials appears mostly in smooth
muscles, which are self-excitatory and contract
themselves without any external stimuli.
• So, this is otherwise called pacemaker waves.
Electrical activities in smooth muscle:
• Smooth muscles showing rhythmic contractions A = Slow-wave rhythm of resting membrane potential
are present in some of the visceral organs such as B = Spike potential
intestine. C = Spike potential initiated by slow wave rhythm
D = Action potential with plateau
3. Action potential with plateau
• Starts with rapid depolarization as in
the case of skeletal muscle.
• But, repolarization does not occur
immediately.
• The muscle remains depolarized for
long periods of about 100 to 1,000
milliseconds
• This type of action potential is
responsible for sustained contraction
of smooth muscle fibers.
• After the long depolarized state, slow
repolarization occurs Electrical activities in smooth muscle:
A = Slow-wave rhythm of resting membrane potential
B = Spike potential
C = Spike potential initiated by slow wave rhythm
D = Action potential with plateau
Tonic contraction of smooth muscle without action potential
• Smooth muscles of some visceral organs maintain a state of partial contraction called
tonus or tone.
• And this is due to the tonic contraction of the muscle that occurs without any action
potential or any external stimulus.
• Sometimes, the tonic contraction occurs due to the action of some hormones.
Types of smooth muscle fibers
1. Single-unit or visceral smooth muscle fibers
2. Multiunit smooth muscle fibers.
1. Single-unit or visceral smooth muscle
fibers
• Are the fibers with interconnecting gap
junctions
• Presence of many gap junctions allow rapid
and free spread of action potential from one
muscle fiber to the other and cause the
muscle fibers to contract together (as a single
unit).
• Hence, this type of smooth muscle is also
known as syncytial smooth muscle because
of its syncytial interconnections among
fibers.
• Also called visceral smooth muscle because it
is found in the walls of most viscera of the Multi-unit (A) and unitary
body, including the gastrointestinal tract, bile (B) smooth muscle.
ducts, ureters, uterus, and many blood vessels
Features of single-unit smooth muscle fibers:
1. Muscle fibers are arranged in sheets or bundles
2. Cell membrane of adjacent fibers fuses at many points to form gap junctions.
Through the gap junctions, ions move freely from one cell to the other. Thus a
functional syncytium is developed. The syncytium contracts as a single unit. In
this way, the visceral smooth muscle resembles cardiac muscle more than the
skeletal muscle
3. These smooth muscle fibers exhibit spontaneous contractions.
4. Major share of control of unitary smooth muscle is exerted by non-nervous
stimuli.
Electrical activity in single-unit smooth muscle
• Usually 30 to 40 smooth muscle fibers are simultaneously depolarized, which leads to
development of self propagating action potential.
• It is possible because of gap junctions and syncytial arrangements of single-unit
smooth muscles
Multiunit smooth muscle fibers
• Are the muscle fibers without
interconnecting gap junctions.
• These type of smooth muscle
fibers composed of discrete,
separate smooth muscle fibers.
• Each fiber operates
independently of the others and
often is innervated by a single
nerve ending, as occurs for
skeletal muscle fibers.

Multi-unit (A) & unitary (B) smooth muscle.

Features of multiunit smooth muscle fibers:
1. Muscle fibers are individual fibers
2. Each muscle fiber is innervated by a single nerve ending
3. Each muscle fiber has got an outer membrane made up of glycoprotein, which helps
to insulate and separate the muscle fibers from one another
4. Control of multi-unit smooth muscle fibers is exerted mainly by nerve signals
5. These multi-unit smooth muscle fibers do not exhibit spontaneous contractions.
6. Each multi-unit smooth muscle fibers can contract independently of the others, and
their control is exerted mainly by nerve signals.
Electrical activity in multiunit smooth muscle
• Electrical activity in multiunit smooth muscle is different from that in the single unit smooth
muscle.
• Electrical changes leading to contraction of multiunit smooth muscle are triggered by nervous
stimuli.
• Nerve endings secrete the neurotransmitters like Ach and noradrenaline.
• Neurotransmitters depolarize the membrane of multi-unit smooth muscle fiber slightly leading
to contraction.
• The action potential does not develop.
• This type of depolarization is called local depolarization/excitatory junctional potential (EJP).
• This local depolarization travels throughout the entire smooth muscle fiber and causes
contraction.
• Local depolarization is developed because the multiunit smooth muscle fibers are too small to
develop action potential
Contractile process in smooth muscle
• Compared to skeletal muscles, smooth muscles, the contraction and relaxation processes
are slow, hence latent period is also long.
• Thus, the total twitch period is very long and it is about 1 to 3 seconds.
• In skeletal muscle, the total twitch period is 0.1 sec.
• Process of excitation and contraction is very slow in smooth muscles because of poor
development of ‘L’ tubules (sarcoplasmic reticulum).
• So, the calcium ions, which are responsible for excitation-contraction coupling, must be
obtained from the extracellular fluid.
• It makes the process of excitation-contraction coupling slow.
Excitation contraction coupling in
smooth muscle
Calcium-calmodulin Complex
• Stimulation of ATPase activity of
myosin in smooth muscle is different
from that in the skeletal muscle
• In smooth muscle, the myosin has to
be phosphorylated for the activation
of myosin ATPase.
1. Calcium, which enters the
sarcoplasm from the extracellular
fluid combines with a protein called
calmodulin and forms calcium-
calmodulin complex Intracellular calcium ion (Ca++) concentration increases when Ca++ enters
the cell through calcium channels in the cell membrane or is released from
2. It activates calmodulin-dependent the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) The Ca++ binds to calmodulin (CaM) to form a Ca++-CaM complex,
3. This enzyme in turn causes which then activates myosin light chain kinase (MLCK).
The active MLCK phosphorylates the myosin light chain leading to
phosphorylation of myosin followed binding of the myosin head with the actin filament and contraction of the
by activation of myosin ATPase smooth muscle. ADP: adenosine diphosphate; ATP: adenosine
triphosphate; P: phosphate
4. Now, the sliding of actin
filaments starts.
5. Phosphorylated myosin gets
attached to the actin molecule
and it is responsible for the
sustained contraction of the
muscle with expenditure of
little energy.
6. Relaxation of the muscle
occurs due to dissociation of
calcium-calmodulin complex

smooth muscle contraction

Control of smooth muscle
1. Nervous factors
• Smooth muscles are supplied by both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves.
• However, these nerves are not responsible for the initiation of any activity in smooth muscle.
• The tonus of smooth muscles is also independent of nervous control.
2. Humoral factors.
• Include hormones, neurotransmitters and other humoral factors.
Hormones and Neurotransmitters
• Action of the hormones and neurotransmitters depends upon the type of receptors present in
membrane of smooth muscle fibers in particular area (excitatory or inhibitory).
• If excitatory receptors are present, the hormones or the neurotransmitters contract the muscle
by producing depolarization.
• If inhibitory receptors are present, the hormones or the neurotransmitters relax the muscles
by producing hyperpolarization.
• Hormones and neurotransmitters, which act on smooth muscles are:
1. Acetylcholine
2. Antidiuretic hormone (ADH)
3. Adrenaline
4. Angiotensin II, III and IV
5. Endothelin
6. Histamine
7. Noradrenaline
8. Oxytocin
9. Serotonin.
Humoral Factors: Humoral factors other than the hormones cause relaxation of smooth muscle fibers.
10.Lack of oxygen
11.Excess of carbon dioxide
12.Increase in hydrogen ion concentration
13.Adenosine, Lactic acid, Excess of potassium ion, Decrease in calcium ion, Nitric oxide (NO) &the
endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF)